I knew the Farleigh Nettheim tannery at Concord during my childhood days. I was born in 1935 and lived with my family at No. 6 Finch Avenue. Our back gate opened onto the eastern end of Crane Street which we always referred to as “the back lane” since it was an unpaved dirt road that…
As a tribute to the 20th Anniversary of the Sydney Olympic Games our museum had planned a special display. Unfortunately, COVID-19 intervened and we had to postpone it. However, with things improving and the upcoming Tokyo Games we will now go ahead as planned in July. Our guest speaker for July will be Kerrie Quee,…
1896: Edwin Flack becomes Australia’s first Olympian. The first Olympic Games of the modern era were held in Athens from 5 to 10 April 1896. Edwin Flack, an accountant and Australasian champion runner, is considered Australia’s first Olympian. He won the 800-metre and 1500-metre sprints, took part in the marathon and won a bronze medal…
In August 1916, Private Douglas Grant departed Australia on a troop carrier bound for the United Kingdom. Like thousands of other young Australian men, Grant had signed up for the AIF and wound up fighting in the trenches on the Western Front in France. The Germans captured Grant in June 1917 and he spent the…
THIS SAMPLER was embroidered by Maria Darling in 1834. It demonstrates her skill with embroidering letters and numbers as well as various designs within a border. The verse reads: What is the world, all things hereTis but a bitter sweet.When I attempt a rose to pluck,A prickling thorn I meet. This is one of the…
What, you ask, is ‘Butt dust’? What do you do or say, when an innocent child asks you something so innocent and they are so serious? Read on and you’ll discover the joy in it! These have to be original and genuine. No adult is this creative!! MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old…
A century ago, many houses and public buildings were built with stone foundations. Corner stones (quoins) were used on larger buildings to provide additional support for brick walls as well as for decorative effect. Gardens featured stone walls and pathways, while crushed stone was used as road base and to repair roads that had been…
Portion of a diary kept by a French-Canadian exile, François Maurice Lepailleur, whose group had been landed at the original wharf at what is now called Bayview . . . Wednesday, 11 March 1840. Today we disembarked from the Buffalo to go to work for the government. It was half past nine in the morning…
We recently received a copy of a home movie of the Official Opening of the New Council Chambers & Offices in Wellbank Street, Concord in 1962. It was made by local resident Alexander John Fuller and donated by his son Andrew, who told us a little about his father, who everyone knew as John. He…
Although not heard as much these days the saying, shoot through like a Bondi tram, was very common in the early 1900s. There was a time when Sydney was one of the world’s great tram cities and Bondi Trams shot through Paddington like, well, a Bondi Tram. In its heyday, Sydney’s tram network was the…
While chatting recently about possible displays for our City of Canada Bay Museum, it was mentioned that there are many commemorative coins out there in circulation, The question was asked – “Why haven’t we been collecting these?” The only answer we could come up with was that we hadn’t thought of it. I know we…
There was an age, not a generation ago, when local news was circulated by suburban and regional newspapers. The lifeblood of such publications were the “classifieds”, commonly referred to as “Hatches, Matches and Dispatches” or births, deaths and marriages. There were also notices of engagement, anniversaries and obituaries. Goods and chattels were advertised for sale,…
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